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Posts Tagged ‘assembly’

In our younger, more impressionable years there seemed to be a mystique surrounding the neighborhood tree house. Whether it was in your backyard or that of your buddy’s, kids just seem to flock to that box. Some were just a collection of repurposed refuse while others were well-planned construction masterpieces. But they all seemed to be consistent in a couple of features; elevation and imagination.

Elevation: I am not sure if that aspect was overcompensation for the height-challenged youth or just because it was super cool to keep something off of the ground. Plus it gave us a reason to create stairs, rope pulls and the ever-coveted fire pole! The elevation also gave us a great way to increase our view of the world.

Imagination: Many kids have spent countless hours dreaming of different worlds. Some were playing knights defending castles of medieval times. Others piloted space ships who were exploring distant planets. Fire trucks, stage coaches and battlegrounds were all envisioned by its occupants. It’s amazing how those small boxes could invoke such an imaginative environment.

Using SOLIDWORKS Mechanical Conceptual for the first time is like the first time you used an iPhone after having that state of the art flip phone. Stepping into the Single Modeling Environment (SME) is like seeing your favorite games, email, calendar, and music on the same screen for the first time. The SME allows you to switch from a multi body part to an assembly with the click of a single button without the interface really changing at all. As a long time CAD user with all of the preconceived notions of what a file or assembly structure should look like, I am not sure that I really grasp the intricacies of what this change in thought process can actually provide. I have tried to force myself to expand my thought process into how this would change my daily workflow, but feel as though I am just barley scratching the surface. It plays very well into the intuitive pillar; you don’t have to think about file structure as part of the design process. When you have spent so much time concerning yourself with sub assembly structure this is a concept that may take some time to fully understand.